“John Virgo was a typical Salford lad who will go down in snooker history,” says snooker legend Reg Davies of the remarkable player and legendary broadcaster who never lost sight of what truly mattered beyond the baize.
Virgo’s extravagance, charisma and infectious wit supercharged a campaign the pair were involved in to raise £18,000 to buy a hospital an ultrasound scanner. His reputation as a showman packed people into Plymouth Grove snooker club in Greater Manchester for an exhibition match fundraiser, but it was his generosity with his time that night that left an indelible mark on those in attendance.
Born in Salford in Greater Manchester on March 4, 1946, the youngest of five siblings, to William, a crane driver in the docks, and his wife Florence, a shop assistant, Virgo began to practise the trick shots he would become renowned for on a table he was bought at eight years old, in the two-up two-down terraced house on Robertson Street, off Eccles New Road.
The nearby Salford Docks were a target for bombing during World War Two and the ardent Manchester United supporter recounted that the Ordsall wastegrounds where he recreated goals scored by the Busby Babes he adored as a youngster ‘bore the scars of those bombing raids’.
As a youngster, Virgo attended Trafford Road Boys School and then Ordsall Secondary Modern School. Despite his protests, he was forbidden by his parents from attending the local billiards club on Small Street, affectionately dubbed ‘Pill Hall’ by locals. When Virgo left education to begin work as a runner at engineering firm Bannister Walton, the ban was lifted and his ascent to the upper echelons of the sport began.
“There weren’t many snooker clubs at the time, but I was lucky and there was one just off our road,” he recalled. “Six months after picking up a cue, I was the Boys’ Champion of Great Britain.”
A self-described socialist, Virgo frequented Broughton Liberal Club on Great Clowes Street with his friend and fellow Salford snooker legend Paul Medati. Christopher Massey, a member of the club during the late 60s, explained, “John would say ‘Not you lot again!’ when he saw us playing. It was a standing joke that it took my friends and me three-quarters of an hour to take the triangle off,” Massey remembered.
While Virgo won the 1964 British Youth Championship, he had arrived too early to capture the lucrative prize money that would come with the sport’s 1980s boom.
Instead, the snooker ace realised he could supplement his day job earnings by gambling on games played in the evenings, such was his skill that Virgo often bet he could beat opponents while restricted to potting only the yellow when they were on a colour. He regularly played frames for cash against punters in Broughton’s famous Potters Snooker Club, competing alongside the best players the country had to offer.
“It was open 24 hours, and if you were a member, you got a key so you could knock about there for as long as you wanted. It’s where John Virgo, Alex Higgins and John Spencer used to practise their shots,” legendary Salford poet John Cooper Clarke said of the snooker den.
Dave Spencer, nephew of another Salford legend John Spencer remembered the days where all these players used to ply their trade regularly in Salford.
He told Salford Now: “They (Virgo, Spencer, Higgins) all used to play here. Not at the poolhall as it had only just opened but at Potters in Lower Broughton, where the McDonalds now is.
“They were real good days. For these top players, it was always for the money, even in Potters. It was a late night snooker den where all the players used to come for a late night Friday gamble.
“John, for example, would only take the yellow, he would let the opponent take every other colour, it was his way of making money, because he would always win.”
With his reputation as a top amateur growing, Virgo was invited to appear on Granada Television. He flourished on screen for the first time and won.
The following year, Higgins threw down the gauntlet and appeared unannounced to challenge Virgo to a match for money. Virgo won 39–25, but Higgins promised to pay next time the pair crossed paths and vanished into the cold night. Unfortunately, Virgo had been played by the “Hurricane” and never received his sizeable prize.
In 1976, Virgo took the chance to leave an administrative job at Miles Druce Metals in Rochdale to help run Potters, at twice his previous earnings. The money allowed him to turn professional, but while he would reach the World Championship semi-final in 1979 and win the UK Open that same year, his breakthrough coincided with Steve Davis’ 1980s domination.
Ironically, the man dubbed ‘Mr Perfection’ almost squandered the highlight of his playing career through his tardiness when, after defeating Steve Davis and Dennis Taylor to reach the 1979 UK Championship final, he turned up late for the final session of the match against reigning world champion Terry Griffiths and was docked two frames.
Virgo failed to realise the final session had been brought forward from 1.45pm to noon to accommodate BBC Grandstand coverage and was penalised before being pegged back to 11–11, at which point Griffiths tabled an offer to halve the prize money. Riled by his opponent’s complacency and desperate not to let his crowning moment slip away, Virgo roused himself to earn a tense 14–13 win.
It’s a testament to Virgo’s natural broadcasting ability that his time playing is often overlooked by what followed. In the twilight years of his professional career, he became famed for his impressions, including a twitchy Higgins and shrugging Ray Reardon, practised at Butlins holiday camps, where he played exhibition matches, and performed trick shots.
He seamlessly took to life co-presenting the BBC’s snooker-themed quiz show ‘Big-Break’ alongside comedian Jim Davidson on Saturday evenings in the early 90s, before moving behind the camera to commentate on the organisation’s coverage of the sport. “Who’d’ve thought someone from Salford would end up commentating on the BBC?” he asked Stephen Hendry, rhetorically, when he was interviewed by the former seven world-title winner.
Reg Davies added: “When I look back, he will always be remembered for ‘Where’s the cue ball going?’” Virgo’s famous catchphrase when a player was close to committing a foul has become part of snooker folklore – and has been immortalised as one of the most instantly recognisable lines in sports broadcasting.
Crucially, at the height of his fame, he continued to call on the lessons learned from his post-war Ordsall upbringing and time spent in Broughton snooker halls – and was proud to be a “typical Salford lad.”
“Salford is its own city, with its own identity, its own heart rate and rhythm,” he once wrote in his autobiography Say Goodnight JV, describing how he always corrected people who billed him as from Manchester.
Virgo, who died in February 2026, was remembered fondly by Salfordians on his passing as a warm, affable man who always had time for people – as well as a master snooker player and broadcaster.
Christopher Massey has only good words to say about him: “He was a real character, a gentleman with no airs or graces about him.”
